Week 2: Analysis of "Daddy" and "Photograph of My Father In His Twenty Second Year"

Sylvia Plath's poem, "Daddy," totally left me speechless. Throughout this poem, it is obvious that the little girl of the poem did not necessarily have a relationship with her father that most people would ask to possess. I can take from the context that this little girl's father was taken from her - most importantly at an age that she felt she really needed him. I think that this poem is one of resentment and anger. It is her way of forcing herself to let go of her father and his memory. The girl tries to almost sabotage the father's name so he is someone that she does not miss any longer. She remembers him as one that she had to keep reserved around, one that did not guide her to any sort of happiness, and one that was quite controlling. Plath then moves from her father's death to her life as a married woman. She refers to her husband as a vampire and uses it as a reassurance to her father that her husband made her life just as miserable as he succeeded to do in his time both with her on earth and then in her memory after his leaving earth. All seems to be resolved at the end of Plath's poem by her finally letting go of it all. She pronounces that she is through and ends on that note with no further thought.

I understood Raymond Carver's, "Photograph of My Father In His Twenty Second Year," as a poem also one full of disappointment in his father, however, not even near as much as Plath's poem. I see this poem as one of Carver just studying this picture of his father. This studying, I would assume, is after the father has already left the boy's life.  The first two stanzas focus more on the photograph of the father himself - on his stance, on his props, on his facial expression. It depicts the father having an embarrassed look and nothing more than a common looking man. The second stanza then gives off more of a feeling that the father was not fully happy himself, declaring a desire of the father to be bold maybe never being fulfilled. It is apparent through the description of the picture from the boy that he is very uncertain and distant from his father. Their relationship can be assumed to be one that was not very strong and a disappointment to the child. This disappointment is confirmed in the poem's final stanza. Carver shows his conflict of wanting to love his father, however resenting him at the same time. Carver displays that his father is to blame for some of his own flaws and uncertainties of life due to him not being there for Carver throughout life and as an authority figure.

I am so lucky to have the relationship that I do with my father. Especially Plath's poem was so hard for me to imagine. My father has always been nothing less than a role model, best friend, and rock to me. Due to that, I can not imagine hating my father so much that I even blame my own marriage's (whenever that day comes) failure. A daughter, in my view, should always be able to say that she is daddy's little princess so this poem totally blew me away. The same however, goes for Carver's poem. I have three brothers, all who see my dad in the same light as I do. I guess I can not really relate to either of these poems due to the relationship I hold with own father, as well as being fortunate enough to still have him with me! 

Luftwaffe (stanza 9, line 2 of "Daddy") - air force
"I have always been scared of you, With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo..."